the surreal life

Until 2008, Adrianne Curry and her husband, former 'Brady Bunch' star Christopher Knight, had spent almost their entire relationship in front of reality show cameras, first as their romance blossomed on 'The Surreal Life,' then as they romanced and battled their way to the altar and beyond in their own VH1 series 'My Fair Brady.'

But after the series ended, the couple decided to take themselves out of the reality spotlight. Knight hosted a game show on GSN and Curry popped up on a Smoking Gun talking head show, but the pair has more or less been off TV for over two years, mainly to see how well they get along when the cameras weren't in their faces.

Now, with her marriage still intact, Curry's ready to get back into the reality game. She and Knight will be appearing at the first-ever Reality Rocks Expo in Los Angeles on April 9 and April 10. The first winner of 'America's Next Top Model' has also been getting back in fighting shape and fielding offers for new shows. Oh, and in our wide-ranging and frank conversation about reality TV, she told me she wouldn't mind if a show like 'Dancing With the Stars' came knocking.

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about the cheesiest in reality from the decade. And there was a lot of cheesy going around.

The turn of the millennium was the point when television networks were watching the rise of Survivor, The Amazing Race, and American Idol and thought, "I can do that!" What they didn't realize was that to maintain a high quality level, they still needed a big budget.

Instead of monetary prizes, networks turned to things like love, the experience, and the belief of fifteen minutes of fame to entice people to participate. Slowly with the help of networks like Fox, E!, and VH1, reality shows got more classless and turned trashy. Like a car accident, viewers can't stop watching. The decade has provided a countless number of trashy reality shows and here is TV Squad's favorites of the decade.

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started earlier today. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about our favorite reality contestants and participants.

Whether we like it or not, the '00s introduced us to a new form of celebrity: the reality star. In previous decades, the closest we got to this were especially entrancing personalities from MTV's Real World. These people gained fame for acting like well-crafted exaggerations of their real selves.

Faster than you can say, "I didn't come here to make friends," networks picked up on the public's fascination with reality TV like Survivor and they pushed it to the popularity that it has reached today. Now, reality shows barely reflect what happens in normal people's lives but are generally more like high-concept game shows or extremely scripted improvs. But people keep watching, because the personalities are big and captivating.

Yup. Strategic footage editing does wonders. Here are some of our personal favorites from the genre, but feel free to comment with your own worthy additions!

I paraphrased that title, but you'll see what I mean. And it's damage control more than dissatisfaction with what VH1 has become, considering ratings are higher than ever. Still, after the murder/suicide of one of their reality show participants, something had to be said. So Tom Calderone, the president of VH1, told the LA Times that the network doesn't want to be known for infinite spin-offs of their Flavor of Love and Surreal Life types of shows. Which means skanks and hos.

Which is exactly what they're known for. Before this Megan Wants a Millionaire/I Love Money debacle, they had no problem with it. Ratings were up, proving that there are people out there who will tune into all those atrocities to the senses.

For reality television, love is always in the air. Some shows set out to find it ('The Bachelor,' 'Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire'); it happens spontaneously on others ('The Real World'; 'Survivor').

Bob Saget's Comedy Central roast was filmed Sunday night, and the typically raunchy affair may have crossed the line a little bit. Despite being a famously foul-mouthed comedian himself, Saget is best known for playing warm and fuzzy Danny Tanner on Full House. It was because of this famous role that most of the jokes centered on two of his diminutive co-stars: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Whether it was Gilbert Gottfried suggesting that Saget seduced the twins with chocolate milkshakes or Uncle Jesse himself, John Stamos, saying things like, "The whole time Bob and I were doing Full House, he was also hosting America's Funniest Home Videos. His entire job consisted of saying 'Take a look at this' which is what he used to say to Mary Kate in her dressing room," the subject of inappropriate relations with children was apparently a high source of comedy.

Americans are utterly obsessed with celebrities ... particularly their lives away from the limelight. Numerous television "news" programs and magazines highlight stars doing normal things that many of us would do on a daily basis. So, it was only logical that reality series have been built around some of these personalities to highlight their time away from the camera.

Yet it didn't work out as was intended. Rather than showing that these personalities were normal people, they showed the viewers how messed up they, and their families, really were. In some of the earlier Celebreality programs, they even showed unknown weaknesses that fans never knew existed. Despite all of this, viewers have been tuning into these shows each and every week to watch ... just like they would if video of different train wrecks were aired each week.

This fan base has given many of these stars a second, third, or fourth chance at success -- even if their boat sailed a long time ago. Such is the case during the Reality Revolution, where even the most famous can receive fifteen more minutes of fame.

Of course, by "Mrs. Brady" I mean the woman with Wessonality, Florence Henderson, and by "son" I mean her TV son Christopher Knight, who played pork chops and applesauce-lovin middle kid Peter on The Brady Bunch.

Henderson was speaking at a press conference at the Television Critics Association tour for a new Hallmark Channel movie when she mentioned that she thinks that VH-1 pressured Knight into getting married to America's Next Top Model's Adrianne Curry so they could create buzz and more reality show goodness.

If you're a relatively new TV network known for scripted dramas, reality shows and theatrical performances, who would you want to star in your first sitcom? If you said "Flavor Flav", then you and MyNetworkTV have a lot in common.

The show will be called Under One Roof and is about a former convict (played by Flav) who moves in with his wealthy, conservative brother and his brother's family. He then starts teaching his nephew to be a gangster rapper. I only wish I was kidding.

There is a treat for all fans of The Brady Bunch over at AOL TV. As part of their "Where are they now?" series, AOL TV is providing the current stats on all your favorite BB cast members.

Some of them have been more high profile than others. Christopher Knight (Peter) is, of course, well-known to today's reality show fans. He was a cast member on The Surreal Life where he met and fell in love with America's Next Top Modelwinner Adrianne Curry. The two of them went on to star on their own reality series My Fair Brady which ended with their wedding.

So, I was going to do a list about the most villainous women of reality TV but then I thought...wouldn't a list of bad-ass women be way more interesting? Being bad is overrated (almost as overrated as being good). But being bad-ass, now that's a tricky balancing act, one that is way more intriguing.

This list therefore is dedicated to the women of reality TV that make being bad look oh so good. And no, Omarosa Stallworth-whatever is NOT on the list. I'll explain why after the jump.

Here are seven people who used their reality TV notoriety to their advantage. They have found success in other TV genres, film, or entrepreneurial pursuits. Some just found more fame in the genre that put them on thee map. 7. Colleen Haskell (Survivor): Colleen was in the first season of Survivor (Borneo) and while she didn't outwit, outplay and outlast the other cast members, she did make a good run of her fifteen minutes. She finished sixth in her season but was such a genuine and fair player that when her torch was extinguished Richard Hatch called her a "wonderful person." Using her American-apple-pie-pretty-girl-next-door appearance and attitude, she parlayed her reality TV fame into more roles in both television and film. She did a Blistex commercial and had a guest spot on That 70's Show. Most notably, however, she starred alongside Rob Schneider in The Animal (2001). Pretty good for a Catholic school girl from a small town in Maryland.

Retired athletes used to get jobs as managers or coaches or a job in the announcer's booth or even retire. Now they make a living doing reality shows.

First ex-baseball player Jose Canseco did The Surreal Life and now he's pushing a new reality show (scroll down) titled A Day With Jose. Basically, you go to the web site and tell Canseco what you would do with him if you got to spend the whole day with him. Maybe you'd like to go to a Giants game with him and taunt Barry Bonds! Maybe you'd like to see him as a Chippendale's dancer! Maybe you'd just like to see Jose sit around the house watching television!

OK readers, it's your turn. In the comments, tell us what you'd do if you could hang out with Canseco for a whole day.

Because they lost their dignity long ago, the most popular "stars" from VH1's The Surreal Life are reuniting for a competition that will determine who is most famous. Hosted by Robin Leach, who also has no self respect, the contestants will compete in weekly single-elimination games that determine their level of fame. Games include "Paparazzi Hide-and-Seek", Scandal Video Film Festival", and "Hotel Room Trash-a-Thon". As is customary for The Surreal Life, all the contestants will live in the same house. Only, their success at the Fame Games will determine whether they live on the A-list side of the house where they eat gourmet meals and are pampered, or on the B-list side with a ping pong table and crackers.

Celebs signed up for The Surreal Life Fame Games are: Brigitte Nielsen, Chyna Doll, Vanilla Ice, Pepa, Emmanuel Lewis, C.C. DeVille, Ron Jeremy, Jordan Knight, Verne Troyer, Andrea Lowell and Tracy Bingham. The new season begins January 7 at 9 pm on VH1.

VH1's I Love New York (the spin-off of Flavor of Love, which was the spin-off of Strange Love, which was the spin-off of The Surreal Life) is set to debut on Monday, January 8 at 9PM. Kick off the new year with a bit of trashiness! This is the new cast picture of New York (Tiffany Patterson) and her victims lucky bachelors. The flamboyant fellow in pink is the Big Rick to New York's Flavor Flav (so, his job will be to follow New York around and tell her how great she looks). I've already picked my favorite of the bunch... the blond guy in the button-up and khakis. He's in it for the long run, folks!